A Norwich man was charged Friday with robbing a Franklin convenience store in December.

Shaun Cooley, 35, already is accused of being the getaway driver in a robbery of a nearby gas station two months earlier. He was arrested Feb. 14 in connection with that crime.

Cooley also was sentenced Jan. 29 to two years in prison for a January 2011 burglary in Plainfield.

The 7-Eleven convenience store and gas station on Route 32 was held up at 4:35 p.m. Dec. 17. According to a police affidavit, Cooley, carrying a handgun, entered the store and demanded money from the register.

The cashier ran into the office and locked the door, police said, leaving Cooley unable to open the cash register. He threw the register to the floor behind the counter, police said, left the store and sprinted behind it into a nearby field.

Police said in the affidavit that Cooley also is suspected of robbing a Shell gas station on West Town Street in Norwich minutes later, when more than $400 in cash was taken. He is not charged in that incident.

Cooley also is accused of joining with James Goins, of New London, to rob the BP gas station on Route 32, near the 7-Eleven, on Oct. 28.

Goins was arrested for that robbery Jan. 29. Goins told police that he held up the gas station and Cooley drove the getaway car. Goins said he and Cooley met while at the Stonington Institution for treatment of their heroin addictions, police said.

Goins identified Cooley in photos taken by surveillance cameras at the 7-Eleven, police said. He also told police that Cooley revealed details of the 7-Eleven robbery to him and told him that in December, he had bought a loaded 9 mm handgun from his sister’s boyfriend.

In a prison interview, Cooley denied involvement in the robberies as well as knowing Goins, police said.

Police also said that on Dec. 31, Cooley told witnesses that he robbed the same BP gas station in Franklin after Goins had. State police are investigating a Dec. 3 robbery there.

Cooley next is scheduled to appear in New London Superior Court on April 17.

Goins, who has pleaded not guilty to the BP holdup, is scheduled to appear in court Thursday in that case.